Downloading and seeding torrents can put a huge load on your home internet connection, which is already somewhat slow to begin with. If you're downloading a serious amount of torrents, you might want to consider getting a virtual private server (VPS), and let it do the heavy lifting so your home PC doesn't have to.

The benefits are pretty substantial if you're a heavy torrenter. Aside from giving your own PC a break and freeing up bandwidth for things like streaming video, your torrents would finish downloading in a fraction the amount of time they would have taken at home. This is because VPS "seedboxes" are sitting on hugely fast internet connections, and torrent-trackers will make sure that they get all the data as quickly as possible so they can help seed it to other downloaders.

A VPS will cost anywhere between $15 and $50 per month, but if you're using up your entire monthly data allowance (since most ISPs have them now) on torrents, that could end up being worth it. Setting up a VPS isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world, but it's not entirely difficult, either. You definitely need to feel at least a bit comfortable using the Linux command line, though.

You can hit up the link below for a good run-down of what you'd be in for if you decided to take the leap. (Photo: Torkild Retvedt)